Re: disfluencies/editing expressions

--- "J. 'Mach' Wust" <j_mach_wust@...> wrote:

> On Fri, 3 Sep 2004 21:39:30 +0200, Andreas Johansson
> <andjo@...> wrote:
>
> >Quoting "J. 'Mach' Wust" <j_mach_wust@...>:
> >
> >> On Fri, 3 Sep 2004 18:01:35 +0200, Carsten Becker
> >> <naranoieati@...> wrote:
> >>
> >> >Where we're on the topic of filling words and
> such, what
> >> >would German "ja" (yes) and "doch" (no English
> equivalent!)
> >> >in sentences like "Ich *kenne* dich doch!" or
> "*Dich* habe
> >> >ich ja schon lange nicht mehr gesehen!" be
> translated as in
> >> >English? "do VERB" resp. with "VERBsn't it?" and
> "VERBs
> >> >it?" maybe? Note that the use of these words is
> rather
> >> >colloquial.
> >>
> >> This class of words is a specific to German. A
> characteristic of these
> >> words is that they can't be translated. Other
> examples are _denn, schon,
> >> mal, wohl_. They're called _Abtönungspartikel_
> because they're function
> >> is to gradate or colour or add a flavour to the
> meaning of the entire
> >> sentence as a whole. Their syntactical function
> is the sentence focus.
> >
> >Specific to German? I don't see how they really
> differ from Swedish
> >particles like _ju_ and _väl_. Notice that _väl_ as
> particle is different
> >from _väl_ as an adverb _well_ - [vEl] vs [VE:l].
>
> No idea. I've just been repeating what I've learned.
> I shouldn't have said
> that this feature isn't found in any language but
> German, but rather that
> the major European languages lack it (hope you don't
> get too offended if I
> don't Scandinavian languages). In one place I read
> that Guarani has similar
> words. Maybe none of the numerous Germanists who
> researched these particles
> knew Swedish.
Russian has a word "zhe" (letter 'j' + letter 'e')
somehow similar.

And I believe Ancient Greek used lots of similar
particles.

'Ich kenne dich doch' could be: "allons, je te
connais!" in French.



=====
Philippe Caquant

"High thoughts must have high language." (Aristophanes, Frogs)


		
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